


Thirty-Six Questions

by SilverMoonSky



Series: Ladynoir July 2020 [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: 36 Questions That Lead To Love, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Humor, Ladynoir July, Ladynoir July 2020, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25043980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoonSky/pseuds/SilverMoonSky
Summary: When Chat suggests trying the thirty-six questions that lead to love, Ladybug is hesitant. After all, she’s in love with Adrien; Chat Noir is simply her partner. But it wouldn’t hurt to try. And besides, it wasn’t like she wasactuallygoing to fall in love with him... right?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Ladynoir July 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812397
Comments: 41
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ladybug hesitantly agrees.
> 
> Written for Day 2: Stargazing for Ladynoir July.

It was a peaceful night. Ladybug and Chat Noir had just finished their patrol, and they were sitting on the Eiffel Tower. It had been a long day; they’d had two akuma attacks that day, and on top of that, Ladybug knew Chat had had several important responsibilities in his civilian life he hadn’t tended to. She’d almost canceled patrol that day— _almost,_ because Chat had insisted on keeping it on. So rather than Chat’s normal chatter and Ladybug constantly telling him off, it was unusually quiet between them. The two of them simply spent the time taking in the beauty of the night sky. And at one point, when Chat lazily put his head on her shoulder, Ladybug didn’t object, knowing he’d only done so because he was tired.

“The stars look beautiful tonight, don’t they?” Ladybug whispered.

If Ladybug were to look down, she’d see Chat glance up at her as he murmured, “they really do.”

Neither of them felt the need to fill the silence; they were simply content to spend the time reveling in the starlight. Ladybug didn’t know how long had passed before Chat finally spoke.

“Hey, LB,” Chat said, “are you able to stay a little longer?”

Ladybug hummed, still looking out at the sky. What for?”

Chat seemed to hesitate. “I want to try something.”

“If you’re challenging me like the last time—”

“God, no,” Chat said with a laugh. “I’m not challenging you to a race across Paris again.”

“Good, because we all know who would win.”

“Me, obviously.”

Ladybug shot him a deadpan look. “Who won the last time?”

At that, Chat’s ears drooped a little. “You, but—”

“Exactly my point.”

Chat huffed. “ _Meowch,_ my lady. Have more faith in me.”

“Sorry, kitty.” She laughed and flicked his bell. “But I am curious. What do you want to do then?”

Chat lifted his head from her shoulder, turning to face her. “How do you feel about answering thirty-six questions?”

“Thirty-six questions?”

“Yeah. Thirty-six questions that’ll help us get to know each other better.”

She frowned, already seeing where this was going. “Chat, you know we—”

“Wait wait wait, here me out,” Chat said, interrupting her. “Before you say anything, we don’t have to do anything personal. We could only do the generic questions, and we can skip any of the questions you think could reveal our identities. Besides,” he added, “don’t you think getting to know each other more would help us more in battle?”

“We’re already good in battle as it is,” Ladybug pointed out.

“But who knows, one day we could face a pastry-themed akuma, and knowing your favorite pastry might be _crucial_ to help defeat the akuma. Speaking of”—Chat batted his eyelashes at her—“what _is_ your favorite pastry, bugaboo?”

Ladybug snorted. “Croissants. And I don’t think that’ll ever happen, Chat.”

He simply grinned. “Croissants are my favorite, too! But you don’t know that. It _could_ happen.”

“You know what I mean.” She rolled her eyes in good humor. “Our identities are secret for a reason.”

“I meant what I said, Ladybug,” Chat said earnestly. “I do think we need to get to know each other more. I hardly know anything about you; one day that could really hurt us. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. If you don’t even want to continue after the first couple of questions, that’s completely fine. But I do think we should give it a try.”

Ladybug bit her lip. She had to admit, he made some good points. It _would_ be helpful to get to know her partner more, but at the same time, there was a reason they had to keep secrets between them. However, she wasn’t ready to give a full yes or no yet.

“What do we have to do?”

Chat took out his baton and navigated the internet, pulling up an article. “There are three sets of questions, and each gets slightly more personal than the next. But we can skip all the questions you’re not comfortable with.”

That didn’t seem so bad. “Is there anything else?”

“Yeah, one more thing. We have to stare into each other’s eyes for four minutes at the end.”

“Stare into each other’s eyes?” Ladybug asked, baffled. “Why would we have to do that?”

Chat rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Because it’s the _purrfect_ way to end asking all the questions?”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “Chat.”

“Because the article just happens to know that if you stared into my eyes, you wouldn’t be able to resist me?”

_“Chat.”_

He smiled nervously at her. “It’s uh, thirty-six questions that’ll make you fall in love?”

Ladybug’s eyes widened, but Chat continued before she could respond.

“I’m not trying to do anything, I swear!” he exclaimed. “I just thought, well, I don’t know you as well as I want to do, and the questions would help, but trust me, we don’t have to do any of that!” Chat blinked at her hopefully. “Like I said, we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I know there’s the other boy, and I swear I’m not trying to get in between.”

Ladybug mulled over it. There were a number of things that could go wrong with this—for one, they could accidentally reveal their identities to one another. Another thing was that she still loved Adrien. She didn’t want to get through these questions and lead Chat on. He was her partner, one of her best friends, but she couldn’t fall in love with him; she just couldn’t.

But it wasn’t like thirty-six questions would _actually_ lead her to falling in love with him, right? It was just a game of the sorts. They were just going to get to know each other better. She did know a few things about him, but not a lot. What if he was right and one day she’d need to know something crucial about him? There was a reason they kept their identities secret, and yet. . . .

Well, as long as they skipped the more personal questions, this should be okay, right? It wasn’t like she was going to fall in love with Chat over this, anyways. Her heart belonged to Adrien. It was as simple as that.

“Fine,” she finally said. “We can do it. On two conditions,” Ladybug added when Chat’s face instantly lit up. “One, we’re skipping all the questions that can’t be answered vaguely and could potentially lead to us figuring out each other’s identities. And two, we’re not staring into each other’s eyes at the end.”

Chat grinned. “Aw bugaboo, please don’t tell me you’re giving up the chance to check me out.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t make me regret this, kitty,” she warned.

Chat’s expression was suddenly serious as he nodded. “I promise you won’t regret it, my lady.”

“Good." Ladybug smiled. "So what’s the first question?”


	2. Set One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ladybug and Chat go through set one.
> 
> Written for Day 5: Banter for Ladynoir July.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I debated on whether or not I should go through every single question or pick and choose, and eventually I decided not to do all of them. This chapter is just so dialogue heavy, and I don’t know how many questions you could read about before things started getting repetitive :P
> 
> But anyways. Enjoy! :)

“Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?”

Ladybug's answer was immediate. “That’s easy. Jagged Stone for sure.”

Chat’s face lit up. “Oh yeah, that would be cool! I think he’d be my answer too.”

Actually, he’d been thinking more along the lines of his father, but now that he thought about it, that probably wasn’t the best subject to bring up at the moment. Chat was already grateful that Ladybug had agreed to do this with him; he wasn’t about to ruin it by bringing up personal topics.

Of course, there were a few personal things that would come up in the following questions, but they’d deal with that when they got there.

“I mean, who _wouldn’t_ want him as a dinner guest?”

Chat raised an eyebrow. “XY?”

Ladybug winced. “Oh yeah, good point. You know,” she added, “we’re not going to have a problem if all the questions are like this.”

He still couldn’t believe it. Ladybug had actually agreed! He’d fully expected her to say no, but when she’d actually considered it. . . . it had taken all of his self-control not to jump to his feet in excitement. After all, when he’d first stumbled upon the article, Chat’s first instinct had been to work through the questions with his partner. He couldn’t believe she was giving him the chance to do so.

Chat knew that she wasn’t doing this for the end result of falling in love, of course; Ladybug was in love with someone else. He wasn’t about to take advantage of this.

(But still. There was the tiniest part of him that would let himself hope. Even if it was wrong.)

“Oh, we’re just getting started, bugaboo.” Chat smirked before looking down at his baton and reading off the next question. “Okay, next one. Would you like to be famous? In what way?”

“I’m assuming you mean for something other than superhero stuff.”

“Yeah. Like, imagine if I was famous for my _purrfect_ looks. Then you wouldn’t be able to resist me.” He grinned and leaned forward, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You? Famous for your looks?” she snorted, pushing his nose away with a finger. “You’d be more likely to be famous for your terrible sense of humor.”

If anything, Chat’s grin seemed to get wider. “I kinda like that better, actually. Imagine it: Chat Noir, pun extraordinaire, always dishing out smooth pickup lines—”

“No.”

“You have to admit it, my lady. My sense of humor is—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

He pouted, though it was in good nature. “Fine. What would you like to be famous for that wasn’t superhero stuff?”

Ladybug bit her lip. “Well, in my civilian life, I. . . . well, I guess you could say that I’m an artist, of the sort. And I’d love to be famous for some of my work in the future.” She paused. “Truthfully, though? I think I like being famous just the way I am, just for saving Paris. I can’t imagine being famous on both sides of the mask.”

_If only you knew,_ Chat thought, but he mentally stored what she’d said in the back of his mind before saying, “yeah, there’s nothing I really _want_ to be famous for on my civilian side, either. I like being Chat, and I like saving Paris. I think that’s better than anything else I could possibly be famous for.”

Ladybug hummed in agreement. “That makes sense. What’s the next question?”

Chat smiled. He already could tell this was going to be a long night. “Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?”

At that, Ladybug laughed. “Oh god, civilian me is _terrible_ at spontaneity.”

“Hero you is also terrible at spontaneity,” Chat said dryly.

“True. When I’m talking with my friends I don’t really feel the need to plan what I’m going to say, but there was this one time—” she suddenly broke off and ducked her head, embarrassed.

“This one time what?”

Ladybug shook her head. Her face was bright red. “Nope, not telling you.”

“Come on, my lady, you can’t just say that and not tell me!” Chat nudged her side. _“Purrty_ please?”

“It’s embarrassing,” she mumbled.

“I’m not going to judge you.” When Ladybug raised an eyebrow at him, he added, “well, I _might_ make fun of you, but I’m not gonna be mean about it or anything.”

“I once left an embarrassing voicemail for my, uh, crush.” She glanced at him nervously, but Chat gestured for her to go on despite the sudden pang in his heart. “I had planned out what to say and I said it, but at the end, when I thought the voicemail ended, I started ranting about what I’d said to my best friend.” Ladybug’s cheeks bloomed with color. “I called him hot stuff and told him about my crush, but instead of deleting the message, I sent it to him instead.”

“So what happened?”

“Um. . . . I may or may not have broken into his locker, stole his phone, and deleted the message to make sure he didn’t see it.”

Chat’s eyes widened. “Wait. So you _stole_ his phone?”

She shrugged sheepishly. “Maybe?”

“My lady,” he gasped in mock horror, “you’re supposed to be a role model.”

“It’s not like anyone knows about it,” she said hotly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Except my best friend, but she doesn’t know I’m Ladybug, so. . . .”

“I’m similar, in a way,” Chat said, laughing. “I normally don’t plan out what I’m going to say when I’m talking with my friends, but when I need to talk about something important to someone, that’s when I’ll usually plan something out.”

Ladybug nodded. “I literally can’t get through anything without a plan.”

“Oh, trust me, I think I know that better than anyone.”

Shaking her head fondly at him, she asked, “okay, next?”

For the next hour, the two of them continued to work through the questions. It was as interesting as Chat had imagined it would be; to his surprise, Ladybug was equally as invested as he was, and answered each question with as much detail as she could. It seemed as though after their long day, this was energizing the both of them.

Some of the questions were fun to answer. Like when Chat answered that no day was ever complete without seeing his lady for “what would constitute a “perfect” day for you?”, or when Ladybug admitted that the last time she’d sang to someone else had been when she was daydreaming about her crush in class for “when did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?”. It was nice to hear that he and his partner both agreed on keeping the body of a thirty-year old for “If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?”—and they even had an interesting discussion to go along with it.

With each and every answer, Chat got to know his superhero partner better. He _loved_ it. Just the fact that Ladybug trusted him enough to open up this much warmed his heart. He knew how much keeping their identity secret meant to her; if she was still doing this, it meant she was enjoying herself.

But it wasn’t long before the two of them ended up skipping a question. It was brief, and it killed the mood instantly, but when Ladybug quietly asked to skip “do you have a hunch about how you would die?”, Chat was inclined to agree.

(Because they both knew they had the same answer to that.)

After that, the next question had been, “name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.” Chat immediately lifted their spirits by loudly spouting ridiculous things, and Ladybug laughed. In the end, neither could pick—“we’re just too _meowlike,_ my lady”—and they left the question at that.

It was safe to say that the time flew by. When Ladybug checked her yo-yo, they were both surprised to see it was nearly midnight.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to get through all thirty-six questions tonight,” she said.

Chat nodded. “Yeah. There are only about four more questions in this set, though. If you want, we can finish up this set, and then we can do the next set tomorrow. If you want to, that is,” he added hastily. “If you’re not comfortable, we don’t have to.”

Ladybug frowned, pondering the situation. “I. . . . well, if I’m being honest, this was really fun, Chat.” He smiled as she added, “let’s do this. We’ll finish the rest of the questions in this set tonight, and we’ll do set two tomorrow after patrol.”

“That sounds good. Next question?” Ladybug nodded, and he asked, “for what in your life do you feel most grateful?”

“Just one thing? That’s hard.”

“The answer is easy enough for me,” Chat said. “I’m most grateful for getting my Miraculous. It’s changed my life in so many ways.”

“Some of those changes aren’t necessarily good, though, don’t you think?”

“I think the pros outweigh the cons. Hawk Moth may suck, but well, my civilian life changed immensely.” After all, Chat was sure he’d still be homeschooled if it wasn’t for the courage his Miraculous had given to stand up for himself. “Being Chat gives me so much freedom. And of course,” he said, smiling at her, “I met you, my lady.”

Ladybug seemed to be flattered by his declaration, if the color on her cheeks was anything to go by. “I can’t help but think about the negatives of being chosen for the Ladybug Miraculous, but I think you’re right. I’ve become a lot more confident since I became Ladybug, I met Tikki, and I also met you.”

Chat felt himself blush. He looked down at his baton, ducking his head so Ladybug wouldn’t see. “So is that your answer?”

If he’d looked up, he would have seen Ladybug smile. “Yes, _chaton,_ that’s my answer. What’s the next question?”

Chat’s giddiness at Ladybug’s proclamation—he couldn’t believe she was actually _grateful_ to have met him!—died down the moment he saw question ten.

“What’s wrong?” Ladybug asked, sensing his hesitation.

Chat shrugged. He’d known this question was coming; he’d looked it over before he even suggested going through the list with Ladybug. But for some reason, he only now realized that he was _actually_ going to have to share the answer with her.

“It’s nothing. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?”

Ladybug’s lips parted, and she gazed at him in concern, as if she’d already sensed this was a sensitive topic for him. “Do you want to skip this?”

Chat shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. You go first.”

“I—okay.” Ladybug paused, thinking. “I don’t think I’d really change anything. I love my parents, and they’re always supportive of everything I do. They’re too good to me, honestly.” She sighed. “I don’t know what would happen if they ever found out I was Ladybug.”

“If your parents are anything like you, I doubt they’ll be anything but supportive,” Chat said. He wished he could say the same for himself.

“Yeah, I guess,” Ladybug said, though she didn’t look convinced. “What’s your answer?”

What _would_ be his answer? What could he possibly say without giving away too much personal information?

On the one hand, he was dying to spill his guts and let out everything he felt. He desperately wanted to tell Ladybug about his frustration with his home life and with his father. But on the other hand. . . . he didn’t want to seem vulnerable. What if revealing all this to Ladybug made her pity him? Or even worse: what if she didn’t believe him? What if she’d think he was making it up?

Of course she wouldn’t, the sensible side of him told him. But Chat couldn’t help it. He’d never really opened up about his home life with her before; it had never really been his place to. So how could he now?

_She’s your lady. You trust her. She cares about you._

“I don’t really know. A lot of things,” Chat admitted.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

Chat glanced at her. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, but Ladybug didn’t seem to notice. Instead she stared at him intently, waiting for his answer with a reassuring smile on her face. That was all it took.

“I guess I’d want to have interacted with more kids my age. I. . . . well, let’s just say I was pretty sheltered growing up. I had one friend. It was only recently I made more friends, and a lot of them tell me that the way I grew up wasn’t exactly normal.” Nino’s disapproving face instantly came to mind, and Chat continued. “My mother isn’t really in the picture anyone, but my father. . . . he’s distant. He always has been, but it’s gotten worse after my mother. . . .” he trailed off, unsure of what else to say despite all the thoughts rattling through his head.

“I’m so sorry,” Ladybug murmured. “I had no idea.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, my lady,” Chat said quietly. “You couldn’t have known. If I could change anything about the way I was raised, I wish my parents didn’t keep me as sheltered as they did. That’s all.”

Ladybug looked as if she wanted to say something, but Chat didn’t give her any time before he read off the next question. In all honesty, he didn’t exactly want to hear what she had to say regarding his family situation.

However, the next question didn’t seem to be any better than the last.

“Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible,” Chat read.

“No,” Ladybug said as soon as the words came out of his mouth. “We’re skipping that one.” He was about to argue when she continued with, “there’s just no way we’re going to be able to keep that vague. Besides, it’s getting late.”

Some part of Chat was instantly relieved at the fact that he wouldn’t have to tell her his entire life story—he couldn’t imagine what her reaction would be to that. However, the other part of him was slightly disappointed he wouldn’t be able to hear her story. But Ladybug had a point. It _was_ getting late, and they both had school tomorrow.

“Fine. One last question. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?”

“The ability to stay awake without coffee,” she joked as she got up to her feet. Ladybug stretched her arms and yawned. “And that’s my cue to leave. What about you, kitty?”

Chat stood up and closed his baton. “You know, bugaboo, that’s not a bad idea. But I _purrsonally_ would want the power to woo anyone with my _pawsome_ humor.”

Ladybug glanced at him in disbelief. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“Of all the powers in the world, _that’s_ the one you’d want?”

“What can I say? If I _did_ have that power, you wouldn’t be able to resist me. Speaking of,” he said, leaning close to her with a smirk, “are you falling for me yet?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes in good humor and gently pushed him away. “You wish. Go get some sleep, Chat,” she added when he pouted. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Set two tomorrow, right?”

She nodded, and with that, she got her yo-yo out and swung off. Chat’s gaze followed her as she weaved through the rooftops of Paris.

“Sweet dreams, my lady,” Chat murmured, a soft smile on his face as he pulled out his baton and headed home for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the end of set one! Next chapter will be set two. Similar to this chapter, I won’t flesh out every single question. However, if you have any specific questions you want me to flesh out, let me know! It’s hard to choose just six :P Here’s a [link](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/style/36-questions-that-lead-to-love.html) :)


End file.
